Intro to Computing Art // Idiom Illustration

FALL 2015

In Intro to Computing, students learn the basics of Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign. For their first project, they had to choose an idiom (raining cats and dogs, hit the hay, you are what you eat, etc.) and construct an interesting, successful illustration. Brainstorming processes such as mind mapping and forced connections were introduced.  Then they had to submit a series of thumbnails of their ideas, and narrow down to their top three. Those three were then turned into rough comps that were drawn with sharpies and micron pens, and critiqued with their entire class. The best chosen sketch was scanned into Illustrator, and vector shapes are placed on top. The focus in Illustrator was learning the Pen Tool and layer management.

Below are some illustrations that were turned in. All have aspects to be improved upon for their portfolio, but overall I was very pleased with their results!

* I have permission from my students to promote their work on my website.

by Abbey Rigdon: Pinching Pennies

by Alleigh Moffett: Whatever Floats Your Boat

by Carly Melton: Sleep Like a Rock

by Imani Smith: Easy as Pie

by Joseph Garland: Eat Like a Bird

by Katie Erickson: Broken Record

by Phoebe Fitzgerald: Eye Candy

by Alex Cayson: Get Off Your High Horse

by Becca VanHorn: Sick as a Dog

by Samantha Sumrall: Quit Cold Turkey

At this point I would intend to feature the Idiom Illustration student work from my Spring 2016 classes, but I was unfortunately on medical leave. I am thankful my art department colleague and Assistant Professor of Graphic Design Suzanne Powney was willing to step in to instruct my Intro to Computing class while I was out.